Obstacles on the Road Towards a Neuroscientific Theory of Mind

In the efforts to establish neuroscientific theories of the mind, one should distinguish between conceptual and scientific obstacles. The conceptual obstacles comprise, for example, various dualist-materialist philosophical positions, emergentism, failure to distinguish between models and non-models, lack of ontological commitment, and the constraints of language. The scientific obstacles comprise, for example, the lack of methods to describe the behaviour of neuron networks and their properties, the difficulties of establishing transition rules between micro-networks and macro-networks, the difficulties in working with non-Pavlovian paradigms and imposing information processing constraints and informational requirements on brain processes.